Chapter books of the month: adventurers assemble

January is not traditionally werewolf season. But here is a fresh howl, from the award-winning Rob Biddulph, picture books author and once of The Observer art room. Manga-like illustrations of big-eyed, dark-robed kids dot The Last Wolf (Macmillan, £12.99, published 5 February), an action-packed middle-years thriller.

Four young friends explore their town at night, in defiance of curfew: wheelchair user Esau hacks into the town’s CCTV system and erases their presence. But the moonlit flits of Esau, Forth, and twins Jax and Jovi grow increasingly dangerous as armed Nighthawks escalate their patrols; the werewolf threat has returned. After an attack, the friends go on the run and discover only they can foil a wolf-linked plot to make the Nighthawks’ sinister leader invincible.

There are more kids on the run in The Not-So Great Escape (Usborne, £7.99), a big-hearted comedy caper by first-timer Emma Green. But the perils here are more alpaca phlegm than bite risk. Hedley’s life has been turned upside-down by the crash that killed his mum; he spends weekends at a centre for kids whose families aren’t coping, worrying about accidents. When he and his thieving bully roommate, Aiden, are sent for work experience on a farm, it sets off a chain of events that spikes Hedley’s anxiety like never before. Aiden absconds with an alpaca, and CCTV captures him wearing Hedley’s distinctive hat. Evading police, the three find themselves on a pratfall-packed road trip that leads Hedley and Aiden to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves, their dads and Hedley’s little sister, Lilly.

There’s another anxious protagonist in Boy vs Reality (Scholastic, £7.99, 12 February), the second book by James Fox. Ethan Lacey’s parents are influencers who document their family’s every move. Ethan hates the performative nature of his home life. He has a zip-mouthed toy monster in his pocket called Fidget, which he feeds his worries to on bits of paper. Fidget is pretty full.

When his noxious brother Mason posts an exposé of Ethan’s fears, stolen from Fidget’s mouth, a traumatised Ethan is forced to retaliate. Cue a series of dramatic reckonings, on and off screen. A timely book about what social media does to people.

Iqbal Hussein’s The Night I Borrowed Time (Puffin, £8.99) finds seventh son Zubair (who hates the nickname Zoo Bear) trying to right wrongs of his own, having discovered a gift for time travel. Top of his list is stopping his taxi driver dad having a disabling accident. But when does a story start? How far back does Zubair really need to go? To the partition of India, it turns out, and the traumatic displacement of an estimated 15 million people along religious lines. Woven through this funny, moving book is Zubair’s increasing understanding of the adults in his life as fallible people with their own hopes and dreams.

The fantastic Joanna Nadin’s latest, When the World Ends (Fox & Ink, £7.99, 5 February), examines what happens when sea levels rise suddenly. Everyone is caught off guard – except some prepper hippies, who have built an ark.

Paris’s mum has married Otis’s uncle, making Paris and Otis, somehow, family. They mark time with Paris’s aunt in a south London commune while the couple honeymoon. When the flood comes, the commune hauls anchor; there are stowaways and goats, secrets and lies, and births and deaths on board as normality disappears. Otis, though, is hellbent on making it back to land. So a motley crew (kids, dog, baby) embark on a further disorienting voyage of discovery, one where family of all kinds – de facto and chosen – proves pivotal.

The Lions’ Run (Hodder, £14.99, 3 February) by US author Sara Pennypacker is another tremendous book that places children in extremis. Pennypacker’s protagonist, grocer’s errand boy Lucas DuBois, is another sensitive soul, mocked by the other orphans who would drown kittens rather than save them.

It’s wartime France under occupation and empathy is at an all-time low. Or is it?

Gradually, Lucas becomes aware of subterfuges: the girl hiding a racehorse from the Nazis; those passing messages to the resistance.

The local maternity hospital, he learns, is for the Aryan babies fathered by Nazis, who would soon be torn from their mothers to be raised in Germany. Day by day, Lucas grows more resourceful. His final daring exploit is somewhat prefigured by the book’s beautiful cover art, by Jon Klassen. But it’s a fitting climax to a vivid, enthralling novel about ordinary people’s acts of resistance – the power of “little termites” to “bring down a cathedral”.

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Illustration from The Lions’ Run by John Klassen